The 2 foot jellyfish, deer park expedition, language lessons and more

This week we had two excursions, one to West Island via ferry and another to Luhuitou Park (Deer Park, I guess) nearby our house on a small mountain. We went to West Island with Haley and an American family we recently met, the Pitts, who we get along with well but they are moving home next week so bye-bye Pitts. The island was really pretty, but there was one problem: the 2 foot in diameter jellyfishes washing up on the shore in the only
designated swimming zone on the island! Not one or two, but multiple gigantic jellyfish, plus lots of small ones. Mike got stung, I got freaked. In fact, we were so surprised that we totally forgot to take pictures of the jellyfish!

The trip to the Deer Park was cool, great view. At the top there is a place to buy red strips of fabric and write a love message on one (Mike + Lisa Forever, that kind of thing), so we bought one and hung it on the appropriate tree. It came with a lock that we locked and took the key and we are supposed to throw the key into the ocean to lose it forever so the lock can never be opened. If only I could find the key to do so, but I guess since it is lost anyway we've accomplished the same thing!

Our language lessons are coming along really well. The tones are so difficult though! And why they couldn't have just quadrupled the sounds and omitted the tones is anyone's guess. Plus, Chinese is sort of like Mexican food. There are only a few sounds but they are compiled in many many ways to make some sort of new meaning. Like the tortilla, beans and salsa concept - one way is a taco, another a burrito, you get the idea.

Our babysitter lasted her 5 days and then was off to her home town, wherever it may be. No more babysitters to be had in this city it seems, but we are handling the Niko work load at odd hours and generally living very long days. Its all good though.

We had a request to take photos of our apartment interior which I agree to do, but I forgot to do for this update so I'll try to remember for the next time around. Oh, and I cooked scrambled eggs on our stove. Twice. And now the eggs are gone and that is the end of my cooking experiment. I bought what I thought was bacon but was actually thick slabs of uncured pork. It is just too much for my brain to figure out the cooking thing in addition to the rest of everything. And so we dine out! Voila, it is very inexpensive! But we did find Oreos in the store, and that was a very good day!